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“The Curated Object will become an important resource for collectors, designers, journalists, and enthusiasts from across the spectrum of design. At last, the design world will have its own clock.”-
ELLEN LUPTON, Cooper-Hewitt Curator, Design Journalist, Writer, Critic and Proprietor of DESIGN, WRITING, RESEARCH

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(a 501(c)(3)-pending organization). Use our listings to find DECORATIVE ARTS + DESIGN EXHIBITIONS by CITY, COUNTRY or OPENING DATE. We do not accept advertising. We are interested in research and analyses by design philosophers, curators, antiquaries, museologists and radical historians. Send a press release so we can create a complimentary museum exhibition listing. Contact: CuratedObject@Gmail.com

Our Philosophy

Sometimes whispering and other times shouting, objects have their own time and cadence. The Curated Object is interested in the exhibition of objects and those who find our engagement with them compelling. Objects act out all the time and revolt against us. Listening carefully is our quest.

Francis Lathrop, American, 1849–1909: David (Model for window in old Marquand Chapel, 1880-1882, burned in 1920),1889. Stained glass, h. 171.0 cm., w. 61.5 cm. Gift of the Museum for the Arts of Decoration, Cooper Union, for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York (y1958-113). Photo: Bruce M. White.

Francis Lathrop, American, 1849–1909: Jonathan (Model for window in old Marquand Chapel, 1880-1882, burned in 1920),1889. Stained glass, h. 171.0 cm., w. 61.5 cm. Gift of the Museum for the Arts of Decoration, Cooper Union, for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York (y1958-112). Photo: Bruce M. White.

Cram and Ferguson, architects, Boston, fl. 1915-1941: Proposed exterior of chapel (S41). Watercolor on wove paper, approximately 96.5 x 71.1 cm. University Archives, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library. Image Courtesy the University Archives, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library

Princeton and the Gothic Revival: 1870–1930

February 25-June 24, 2012

When Princeton University—then still known as the College of New Jersey—sought to modernize itself as a progressive institution of international stature, it did so in part by adopting a visual language drawn from the past: the Gothic vocabulary of the “ancient universities” of Oxford and Cambridge. Princeton and the Gothic Revival: 1870–1930 explores the Gothic Revival movement in architecture and design across America at the end of the nineteenth century, using Princeton's campus as a case study and launching point. This exhibition draws from the Art Museum’s unique resources, as well as those of Princeton's Firestone Library and the University archives, along with the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other institutions, to suggest the central role Princeton played in the Gothic Revival movement, its motivations, and its meanings in defining a great modern university. Princeton and the Gothic Revival: 1870–1930, which comprises forty works of art––many never before exhibited or published––is on view at the Museum from February 25 through June 24, 2012.

“Ultimately, Princeton and the Gothic Revival examines how the language of medieval forms was used to articulate a new model of American higher education, both in campus design and in the classroom,” said Johanna G. Seasonwein, the Museum’s Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow for Academic Programs, who organized the exhibition. “Our goal is to give Museum and campus visitors an opportunity to understand how Princeton employed Gothic Revival architecture to create a new identity for American higher education during an era that also saw a growing interest in the study of medieval art and architecture, both internationally and at the University itself.”

According to Museum Director James Steward, “Our goal is fundamentally to understand the meaning of this extraordinary Gothic Revival language for the University’s very identity as one of the nation’s oldest universities, which was in the process of remaking itself into one of the world’s best.”

In conjunction with the exhibition, a mobile website will be available for visitors to access from their own smartphones. Through the site, visitors to campus will experience the development of the Gothic Revival at Princeton via a multimedia tour of the campus, including many of its most beautiful and beloved buildings. As an extension of the current ongoing collaboration between the Museum and the Princeton Libraries and Archives, the Princeton and the Gothic Revival website will highlight existing and historic sites presented in the exhibition, drawing on images of historic buildings from the University Archives, as well as from personal reminiscences and expert voices recorded for the tour.

“As our first mobile site, the Museum is delighted to extend the exhibition in our galleries into an interactive experience of the heart of Princeton’s historic campus,” said Steward. “Through the mobile tour site, users will be able to access rich content that includes historic images, textual and audio narratives, and comparative images with other works from the American Gothic Revival movement in art and architecture so they can explore our campus in wholly new ways.”

Princeton and the Gothic Revival: 1870–1930 is organized into four sections:

♣ The American Gothic Revival before 1870 introduces the American interpretation of the Gothic Revival movement, which began in England in the mid-eighteenth century but did not become popular in the United States until the mid-nineteenth century.

♣ The Gothic Revival in the Gilded Age focuses on the eclectic approach to the art and style of the Middle Ages during the 1870s and 1880s, when wealthy patrons donated funds for the construction of lavish buildings at Princeton.

♣ The Middle Ages and the Modern University investigates the concurrent development of the new discipline of art history, the collecting of authentic works of medieval art for new art history departments and museums, and the use of medieval-style buildings on campus—and the reflection in these new buildings of the growing interest in scientific, object-based study.

♣ The Collegiate Gothic Campus makes a connection through the English Collegiate Gothic idiom between the new American university and the earlier English colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, institutions that the new Princeton University sought to emulate, in terms of both architecture and pedagogy.

Princeton and the Gothic Revival is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue published by the Princeton University Art Museum and distributed by Princeton University Press. The catalogue features three essays written by Seasonwein and an illustrated checklist of the exhibition. The first essay, “Spires and Gargoyles,” introduces the main themes of the exhibition, while the second, “Princeton and the Changing Face of Gothic,” places Princeton’s architecture within the larger context of developments in Gothic Revival style. The third essay, “‘That Ancient and Most Imperishable of the Arts’: The Role of Stained Glass in the Development of the Gothic Revival at Princeton,” considers the changing approach to the idea of “Gothic” through a case study of three buildings and their stained-glass windows: Marquand Chapel, Procter Hall at the Graduate College, and the University Chapel.

Princeton and the Gothic Revival: 1870–1930 has been made possible by generous support of Christopher E. Olofson, Class of 1992; the Kathleen C. Sherrerd Program Fund for American Art; the Allen R. Adler, Class of 1967, Exhibitions Fund; and Exxon-Mobil Corporation. Support for the publication has been made possible by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Barr Ferree Foundation Fund for Publications, Princeton University. Additional funding has been provided by the Partners and Friends of the Princeton University Art Museum.

Object of Devotion: Medieval English Alabaster Sculpture from the Victoria and Albert Museum

December 3- February 12, 2012

"Object of Devotion: Medieval English Alabaster Sculpture from the Victoria and Albert Museum" presents 60 superb examples of English medieval alabaster sculpture drawn from the Victoria and Albert Museum, which holds the world’s most comprehensive collection of English medieval sculpture. The works on view represent all the major types of alabasters produced by English sculptors across two centuries, including a complete set of altarpiece panels. The exhibition is organized thematically:

• The Art of the “Alabastermen” includes examples of the sculptors’ most refined work, such as a relief panel with exceptionally rich color showing a dramatic, stylized figure of Saint Christopher carrying the infant Christ.

• Martyrs and Miracles. Alabaster images of saints were made for churches and for private homes for personal worship and comfort. This section includes a rare surviving devotional altarpiece with wooden wings commissioned by a private patron.

• Word Made Flesh: The Life of Christ and the Virgin. Over time, styles and carving techniques changed, as did compositions. Questions of stylistic evolution are brought out in a section presenting scenes from the gospels.

• The Altarpiece: Worshipping at Church. Altarpieces played an important role in late-medieval public worship. Most alabaster sculpture took the form of rectangular relief panels designed to be fitted into wooden casings in groups of three or more.

• Business and Religion: Making and Selling Holy Images. The working methods of the alabastermen and the marketing of their products are considered here.

• The Reformation. The Protestant Reformation of the 1530s ended the alabaster industry in England, as sculptures were destroyed or sent abroad to Catholic countries. Examples of defaced and vandalized sculpture are included to illustrate these dramatic social changes.

Catalogue: Object of Devotion: Medieval English Alabaster Sculpture from the Victoria and Albert Museum is accompanied by a 224-page, fully illustrated catalogue, available in the Museum Store.

Credits: The exhibition was organized and circulated by Art Services International, Alexandria, Virginia, and is supported by a grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. His Excellency Sir Nigel Sheinwald, Ambassador of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the United States of America, is Honorary Patron of the exhibition. The exhibition in Princeton has been made possible with major support from the Frederick H. Remington, Class of 1943, Trust, and from The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation; John H. Rassweiler; the National Endowment for the Arts; and the Apparatus Fund. Additional generous support has been provided by the Allen R. Adler, Class of 1967, Exhibitions Fund; the Judith and Anthony B. Evnin, Class of 1962, Exhibitions Fund; the Frances and Elias Wolf, Class of 1920, Fund; and an anonymous supporter. Further support has been provided by the Index of Christian Art, Princeton University; and the Partners and Friends of the Princeton University Art Museum.